Lost Soldier
by The Gone Angel
Summary: When the Starlings create a time machine, a curious person wants to test it. And then he was officially declared lost in time. (For KatnissCahill's Time Machine contest.)


Disclaimer:** I don't own 39 Clues.**

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"DAN CAHILL!"

"DAN, YOU BETTER RUN!"

"I'M GOING TO _KILL _YOU, DAN!"

Dan Cahill flew past the hallways, grinning and laughing like a manic as the Starling triplets chased after him, Ted often bumping into a door, and Ned grumbling over his headaches. Sinead was in full force dangerous Vesper-y mode, advancing on him quickly to make the final blow. Nu-uh. Even though he wasn't the most active teenager around, he wasn't going to let Sinead get to him or he would be grounded by his sister, Amy.

He made them so mad by eating potato chips around their prized experiments- especially that Time Machine they were making. He never understood why they wanted to travel back in time so much. Dan was perfectly content with reality right now, his video games, family, and friends. His socks skidded across the marble flooring at the entrance, making him fall to the ground with a sharp _thud!_

Sinead instantly rushed over, and smacked him in the face with her fist. "_Dan Cahill, _go clean up that mess _right now. _Pronto!" she snapped, waving her hands wildly, slapping Ted on the arm and Ned on the leg in her fury. Dan snickered at her obvious anger, making her eyes look even _more _like lasers ready to melt him to the ground, and her face seemed more flushed in a dark scarlet, sweat dripping from her forehead. "It-it... has been ONE HOUR chasing you around, and I've had...had enough."

He stared at her in surprise. He didn't know the chase went on for over an hour! "...Wait a second. That means I got my daily exercise Amy pesters me about! Yes! Back to video games!" He said with a whoop, and did a karate kick to Sinead's face on accident.

"_Dan," _Sinead hissed through gritted teeth, her green eyes looking like boiling chemicals that witch's made, except she was scarier than a witch. "You better start running towards that lab right now, because I'll be right behind you." Dan quickly stood up, and started jogging slowly towards the lab, almost lazily. After all, his mouth was thick and dry, needing water to quench his thirst.

Sinead grabbed a tennis ball- where she got that, Dan would never know- and threw it right at the back of his head. He yelped in surprise and slight pain, dashing to the lab, with Sinead following, throwing tennis balls with an evil smirk on her face. Ted and Ned strolled behind, snickering about Dan's predicament. As Dan slammed open the door to get into the lab, he remembered that there were stairs.

After he dashed in, that is. Dan fell down the hard, cold stairs, groaning in pain. He finally rolled nearby the Time Machine, not taking note of his sprained ankle as he stood up, hobbling slowly towards the Time Machine. He stared at the piece of metal in awe, wondering if he could maybe test it out for a trial run. He opened the small door to enter the machine, and eyed the buttons scattered all around the walls and ceiling of it.

The time machine was simple- marble flooring, and only big enough to fit three people. He pressed a random button just as he heard Sinead, Ned, and Ted shout, "Dan, no! We don't know if-"

And before Dan could open the door to escape the time machine, he was sucked back into time, to goodness knows when.

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Going back into time wasn't some harmless, spiral of colors and awesomeness like SpongeBob Squarepants made it look like. It was pretty painful to him, as his body kept getting thrown around the machine. He couldn't imagine three people flying around in here. It would be a death zone!

He ignored the pain in his ankle and the deep throbbing in head; instead, trying to focus on how to get back to the mansion. Most likely, Sinead already left to scream curses and explain to Amy or Uncle Fiske what happened to him. He didn't want them to be worried about him, and he knew that he would return home soon. If he survived the Clue Hunt, he could survive wherever he was going.

Suddenly, the time machine jerked to a stop, making him fly against the door, roughly slumping over. Dan didn't remember a day he felt so beaten up, besides jet-lag during the Clue Hunt and the Vesper-craze, and the hard days of training to attack the Vespers. The door opened with squeaks of protest, but Dan stayed put, examining the buttons carefully. He wanted to get out of here, quick.

Before he could press another random button (because, who reads rules anyway?), he heard a gun being shot, and a bullet nailed the time machine. Warily, he stepped out of the machine. Bad mistake. He realized that uniformed people surrounded them everywhere, all wearing gray jackets, gray hats, and blue pants. They held weapons in their arms, all obtaining a serious, deadly look. If looks could kill, he would be dead by now.

Dan still wasn't sure what time period he was in, exactly. He decided to finally look down at what he was wearing. He was wearing a dark blue coat with blue pants, and a blue cap with black leather around it. The time period suddenly clicked in his mind, when he saw both outfits. He came out of nowhere on the opposite team's side. The Confederates side.

And, apparently, he was going to be mistaken as a Union soldier, when he wasn't one at all.

Dan gulped visibly, fingering with the gun in his hands. He didn't know how to shoot it, but he knew if he messed up, it could misfire and hit him instead. Also, there were at least a thousand Confederate soldiers gazing sternly at him, some with bloodlust and some with fear in their eyes. He didn't want to kill innocent people, because it could mess with the current time where he lived.

"Put the gun down," commanded a general. Dan pondered on his choices here. He could either escape and possibly get himself killed, obey and get himself killed, or start wildly shooting until he killed himself and others. He sighed, thinking sarcastically, _Aren't those some wonderful options?_

He decided to do what a true ninja would do.

He ran. He dropped his gun and started running to the back of the Confederate group. Many wore confused expressions, wondering why he was so desperate to flee a instead of attack all of them like a Union soldier would attempt to.

Finally, the general barked orders and the guns fired bullets right at Dan. One hit his leg, another his ankle that was sprained, and one made the death blow straight to the back of his neck.

Dan fell, choking weakly on blood as he attempted to crawl back to the machine, so he could get better and be alive. He ignored the pain flaring all over his fragile body as muddy dirt clung to his uniform, and he continued hacking blood.

His vision started swirling until it reached a pitch black, but that wasn't the end yet. With one last breath, Dan Cahill was officially declared lost in time.

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**TWO WEEKS LATER**

Amy Cahill emotionlessly gazed up from her papers, refusing to shed anymore tears. Sinead stared back down at her best friend, a haunted look in her eyes. "I think you need to see this," she announced, her tone holding mixed emotions.

Amy struggled to be hopeful. "Is he alive?" she exclaimed cheerfully. "I told you he could make it out alive!"

Sinead shook her head. "Quite the opposite, actually," she murmured, grasping her friend's arm to lead her towards the lab. After they went down the stairs, Sinead pointed to the time machine.

Inside, laid her brother, chucks of blood and skin clinging loosely to his skin, and his wide green eyes were open and lifeless, even though it was weird they were open. Usually, people had their eyes closed.

His skin that wasn't bloody or ripped was extremely pale, and he wore a crooked, painful smile before he died, thinking he would return home. That's when Amy broke her promise to not cry again, and burst into tears.

Her brother died like a true soldier.


End file.
